Sniff dog finds citrus pest in Sacramento package; tests will see if they are infected

Dog finds psyllids in Sacramento FedEx package

FRESNO, Calif. — Tests were under way Friday on at least 100 bugs that were found inside a FedEx package and can be carriers of a deadly citrus bacteria.

The finding this week by a sniff dog in Sacramento is the latest bad news for the state’s $1.6 billion citrus industry, which has seen the Asian citrus psyllid jump quarantines in San Diego and Imperial counties and move into Orange and Los Angeles counties on a march from Mexico.

Psyllids are a carrier of huanlongbing, a deadly bacteria that has devastated citrus industries across China, Brazil and Florida, where 200,000 acres of trees have died.

“Can you imagine California without oranges? It’s like not having potatoes in Idaho,” said Mike Jarvis, spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

On Tuesday, Joel Nelson, executive director of California Citrus Mutual, appealed to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for better border inspections, which once was the domain of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but has been transferred by Congress to Homeland Security. In July, a sniff dog in Fresno found a package of curry leaves with infected psyllids in a FedEx package from India that had eluded inspectors at its Los Angeles point of entry.

“We are the only citrus industry with the ability to defeat this,” Nelson said.

Vilsack said he has been in talks with Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security, about increased training for plant inspections.

So far, only the Fresno psyllids have tested positive for the bacteria that causes an incurable condition commonly known as “citrus greening” because fruit fails to ripen properly as trees slowly die. The Orange County psyllids, which have prompted a countywide federal quarantine, tested negative this week.

Frank Carl, commissioner of agriculture in Sacramento County, said a Labrador retriever hit on a package sent from Texas that was supposed to be holding a piece of machinery. The inspector found curry leaves infested with nymph and adult Asian citrus psyllids.

Curry is a host for both the bugs and the bacteria.

The package recipient said he had never before received curry shipped to his home. As a precaution, the CDFA is placing traps throughout the man’s north Sacramento County neighborhood.

Tests results on the bugs should be completed next week, Carl said.

Sacramento County lost its citrus industry in the freeze of 1920, but mandarins are grown in neighboring Placer County. The bulk of California’s citrus is grown 175 miles south in the San Joaquin Valley.

Currently six dog teams operate in five California counties performing random inspections at FedEx, UPS and DHL facilities. Carl said the CDFA and county agricultural commissioners are in negotiations with the U.S. Postal Service to inspect first-class mail packages, an act that currently requires a warrant.

“It’s a random inspection,” Carl said. “The dogs can’t be everywhere at once.”